me back to the donkey!"

The Nation's Debt to Mothers.

BY GILSON WILLETS.

Great Americans Who Have Achieved World-Wide Reputations By
Reason of the Success That Has Attended Their Careers,
Ascribe Their Triumphs to Maternal Influence.

_An original article written for_ THE SCRAP BOOK.

The debt which the United States owes to the mothers of its citizens is
one that is beyond the expression of either figures or language. It is a
debt on which the republic can only pay the interest--interest that
consists of the manifestation of an ever-increasing reverence for American
motherhood; for, with all its magnificent resources, the nation is too
poor to make even a feeble attempt to pay the principal.

No better evidence of the effect of maternal influence on the careers of
successful Americans need be adduced than that which is offered here.

In the lives of the Presidents of the United States, it is found that the
nation owes much to American mothers.

George Washington was only eleven years old when his father died, leaving
the widowed mother, Mary Washington, with five children to educate and
direct. She used daily to gather her children around her and teach them
the principles of religion and morality from a little manual in which she
wrote all her maxims.

That manual was preserved by Washington as one of his most valued
treasures, "and was consulted by me many times in after-life." A French
general, on retiring from the presence of Mary Washington, remarked: "It
is not surprising that America should produce great men, since she can
boast of such mothers."

Andrew Jackson.

A few days previous to the birth of Andrew Jackson his father died, and
the widow and her two little sons rode to the churchyard in the wagon
with the coffin. The support of the family fell, then, entirely upon the
mother. She went to the home of her brother-in-law and there engaged
herself as housekeeper.

Until her sons were old enough to take care of themselves she toiled for
them, clothed them, and educated them as best she could.

Many stories are told of Mrs. Jackson's benevolence, her thrift, her
decision of character, and "a rigid honesty and pride of good name that
went hand in hand with a quick and jealous self-respect which was not
likely to be patient under any injustice."

When Andrew Jackson became President, he said of his mother:

"One of the last injunctions given me by her was never to institute a su